Ovechkin, His Hair and Floor Hockey

So say you just signed a nine-figure contract to play professional hockey, and then you decided that maybe you wanted to get a trim up top, you know, clean up a little. Where would you go for that haircut? Some fancy downtown salon? A men's grooming specialty shop? Nah, that stuff's for prima donna soccer players, or maybe Democratic presidential candidates. If you're Alex Ovechkin, you'd take your $124 million and head to the Hair Cuttery inside Ballston Commons. Really. It's right next to Champs, and around the corner from the As Seen on TV store.

This Hair Cuttery story has been circulating, and so I asked Ovechkin today whether it was true.

"Where I get my haircut? Right here," he said, from the team's practice facility on top of those Commons.

"How much did it cost?" I asked.

"I can't tell you," he said.

I threw out the $14 figure that I had heard, and he agreed. So then I suggested that, you know, maybe some people might theoretically have chosen to upgrade after becoming a multi-millionaire, not that there's anything wrong with the Hair Cuttery.

"I will do it next season," offered Ted Leonsis in an e-mail. "I just ordered a Flowbee."

Before I get to the rest of the hair news, I should note that Ovechkin and Mike Green just conducted a floor hockey clinic at Williamsburg Middle School in Arlington. After some basic drills, they held an eight-on-eight scrimmage: Green and seven boys vs. Ovechkin and seven girls. Nice friendly game. Within about 30 seconds Ovechkin was poke-checking some kid as he tried to pull the ball out from under a bench, and deking kids out of their pants behind the net, and holding some tiny kid off with his right hand as he carried the ball up the floor. His team won, incidentally. It was pointed out to Green the game seemed to get pretty competitive.

At every whistle, Ovechkin got his team into a huddle where they all held hands and then screamed together..

"Yeah, it did, thanks to Alex," he said. "I thought maybe he'd let the kids play a little bit, but he's out there battling with them."

"It's a physical game," Ovechkin said with a shrug.

(Many great pics, plus video, plus perhaps the best quote of the day [which I missed] are available at On Frozen Blog.)

(I should also note that he tried this trick where he scooped the ball up on his stick and bopped it up and down a few times and then whacked it out of mid-air. I could already visualize the bright red blood flowing from some unsuspecting kid's head after it met with Ovechkin's stick, which would have been a great photo-op, but luckily Ovechkin managed to whack it cleanly every time.)

Back to hair. Ovechkin's running mate, young Swede Nicklas Backstrom, has not deigned to chop his locks since he set foot in the U.S. this fall.

"I don't want to do it here," he said. "I have my own designer at home."

Backstrom's hair, waiting to visit Backstrom's designer.

I pointed out that this might mean some serious shag come the spring, depending on how things go.

"I was not think about that," he admitted, "but we'll see what happens. RIght now I'm gonna save it."

And what does he think of Ovechkin's $14 cut?

"That was terrible," Backstrom said. "But that's ok."

"I'm not gonna lie to you, I've been known to go down there," David Steckel said of the Hair Cuttery. "I go to the Paul Mitchell School for hair cutting. They give great head massages. It'll take long, but you're guaranteed a 15-to-20 minute head massage, shampoo and conditioner. Twelve bucks. Twelve dollars for a 20-minute shampoo, you can't go to a salon and get that for under 50. Who cares? Hair grows back."

In one final bit of hair news, defenseman Mike Green--who used to cut his own faux hawk and still trims it up with scissors occasionally--promised a full-on mohawk if things go well this spring.

"I'm waiting for playoffs; playoffs it's going to be in full effect," he said. "Shaved sides, flaming, might even get the tips going."

Agt. Steinz: I don't blame you for not adhering to the "[sic]" rule with regard to quotations; these guys would take up all your space!
Americans, take heed: Poorly constructed sentences are only endearing from non-English speakers.
LEARN YOUR LANGUAGE!

If the guys are into a massage/shampoo/cut for a discount price, the Verizon Center has an Aveda Institute, where they'll do all of that for you for something like $20. They love cutting men's hair, because as far as I can tell, I'm the only guy who ever goes there (my fiancee sometimes makes me appointments).

That said, I can't really tell the difference between a Hair Cuttery haircut and a fancier, more expensive haircut from Aveda or Bubbles. Then again, sometimes I cut my own hair, so what do I know . . .

I've worked with some Swedish colleagues who insisted on one particular stylist or even to fly back home to get a hair cut. Incredible. So, it appears that Backstrom's reaction may be more of a cultural phenomenon.

Anyway, he's got one of the best hockey mops in the league right now - don't mess with a good thing.